Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: January 2012

After capping 2011 with four decent months, the auto industry hit 2012 running. Analysts expect auto sales to outpace 2011 figures anywhere from 6% to 10%, which could make 2012 the best sales year since 2007.

January enticed consumers with total incentives — including financing offers, automaker and dealer cash, and trade-in bonuses — amounting to 16% off the average car’s MSRP, CNW Marketing Research reports. That beats January 2011, when shoppers saw only 13.5% off the average MSRP.

Shoppers took advantage. January sales jumped 11%, beating Tuesday’s expectations. This marks the best annualized month since 2009, Automotive News reports. Chrysler, Nissan and Hyundai-Kia saw double-digit sales gains, with GM the only top-seven automaker to post a loss.

Recall Alert: 2011 Ford F-150, 2012 Ford F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550

Ford is recalling more than 16,000 F-Series pickups from the 2011-12 model years because the transmission can be shifted out of Park without pressing the brake pedal, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall affects the 2011 Ford F-150 and 2012 models of the F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550. The vehicles were built between Sept. 9 and Sept. 22. You can check the vehicle’s build date on a sticker on the driver-side doorjamb.

A defective brake shift interlock switch may allow the driver to inadvertently shift the vehicle into gear without pressing the brake pedal, increasing the risk of a crash or injury to a nearby pedestrian.

Owners will be notified next week, and dealers will inspect the brake shift interlock switch and replace the switch if necessary at no charge. Owners can call Ford at 866-436-7332 or NHTSA’s vehicle safety hotline at 888-327-4236 for more info.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: October 2011

Falling consumer confidence hasn't deterred car shoppers, as pent-up demand raised October sales versus a year ago for all but one major carmaker. Chrysler, Hyundai/Kia and Nissan posted big gains, with GM, Ford and Honda growing modestly. Toyota was the sole loser, dropping 7.9 percent in sales. Pickup trucks, typically strong in the fall, saw continued gains, but family sedans made a comeback, taking three of October's top five slots — something not seen since May.

Detroit pickups took the top two spots, with GM's Chevrolet Silverado and Ford’s F-Series posting some sales gains. The F-Series stayed atop the sales pile this month, comfortably outselling the No. 2 Chevrolet Silverado. Six-cylinder engines account for more than half of all F-150s sold, Ford sales chief Ken Czubay said in a conference call. It gives shoppers of the soon-to-be-discontinued Ranger a truck with similar gas mileage, he said.

Despite the 2012 redesign hitting dealerships last month, Toyota's popular Camry fell 11.9 percent — dethroned for the moment by the Honda Accord, down 1.1 percent. Accord inventory is only about half of what it was in October 2010, according to Automotive News.

PickupTrucks.com Tests the 2012 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor SuperCrew

At the 2011 State Fair of Texas, Ford unveiled an updated 2012 Ford SVT Raptor F-150, which received some performance upgrades for the model year. PickupTrucks.com Editor Mark Williams had the opportunity to test-drive the model, and he thinks it’s just as mean and aggressive as ever.

Changes included a new front Torsen differential and grille-mounted camera, which gives a front-facing view of the ground when set in low range.

To learn more about the Raptor remake, go to PickupTrucks.com.

Quick Drive: 2012 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor SuperCrew (PickupTrucks.com) 

This Season's Best Tailgating Cars

Everyone knows we’re huge football fans here at Cars.com. We are an official sponsor of ESPN’s Saturday College Football, we’re just minutes from Soldier Field, and our staff has a long-running fantasy football league (with a certain editor taking the crown repeatedly.)

Tailgating is one of the best parts of going to a football game. You’re wearing your favorite team’s gear, grilling good food, talking to friends and probably throwing around a ball or bean bag.

But what about the cars that need to serve as more than transportation? They have to haul your tailgating gear and often do double duty as a place to sit. Here is our list of the top tailgating machines for the 2011-12 football season.

2012 Honda Ridgeline

There has never been another feature more tailored for tailgating than the watertight trunk under the bed of the Honda Ridgeline (above). Sure, the Ridgeline is an aging platform that hasn’t taken off with the traditional truck buyer, but it is a great tailgater. It can carry five people in comfort, and once you get to the parking lot and open that huge cooler, your neighbors will be struck in awe. Jaws will drop. You’ll be the king of the tailgaters.

2012 Ford F-150: What's Changed

The 2011 State Fair of Texas is currently under way, and Cars.com and PickupTrucks.com editors are down in the Lone Star State covering the latest in pickup truck-related news.

One of the first big announcements came from America’s best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150. For the 2012 model year, the four-wheel-drive system gets upgraded on most trims, PickupTrucks.com reports. The system now has a two-speed automatic four-wheel-drive system for the Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum trim levels. There are now four-high, four-low, full-time and all-wheel-drive auto modes on the four-wheel-drive models. Hill start assist is also a new feature, and so is an electronic locking rear axle for the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 and 5.0-liter V-8, all of which are supposed to help improve traction capabilities.

A new, larger fuel tank that can hold up to 36 gallons is now standard on all four-wheel-drive EcoBoost F-150s, boosting the driving range to 750 miles.

The F-150 SVT Raptor gets some performance upgrades for the 2012 model year. A new optional traction-tuned front Torsen differential increases grip significantly for the front end of the truck, according to PickupTrucks.com. A new front-end camera on the Raptor helps the driver navigate tough terrain at slow speeds.

To get more nitty-gritty details, continue reading at PickupTrucks.com.

Ford Gives F-150s More Range, Content
Ford Unveils Changes for 2012 F-150 SVT Raptor

Which Automaker Has the Best Pickup Truck for $30,000?

The latest PickupTrucks.com Shootout is a different beast from its predecessors. Instead of choosing between similarly equipped pickup trucks, the focus of this Shootout is pricing. All the trucks in the competition had to stick to a firm $30,000 budget, leading to significant differences between them.

Five trucks participated in the Shootout:

• 2011 Chevy Silverado 1500 extended cab
• 2011 Ford F-150 regular cab
• 2011 Nissan Titan King Cab
• 2011 Ram 1500 Quad Cab
• 2011 Toyota Tundra Double Cab

To see how the trucks fared through a vigorous barrage of testing, including four days of back-to-back driving and a long stint at Ford’s Michigan Proving Grounds, go to PickupTrucks.com.

2011 $30,000 Shootout (PickupTrucks.com)

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: August 2011

August was another solid month of sales growth for many popular carmakers, but Toyota and Honda once again remained the exception.

General Motors (up 18%), Ford (up 11.2%), Nissan (up 19.2%) and Hyundai (up 9.1%) all recorded strong growth. Chrysler grew by 31%, which the automaker says is “well above the industry average.” Stable truck sales buoyed GM, Ford and Chrysler: The Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado are firmly the top-selling vehicles of the year thus far, and Ram sales have grown nearly 25% compared with 2010. 

The Chevrolet Cruze was the third-best-selling car of the month, and it was the best-selling compact car. It’s also GM’s best-selling car, beating the Chevy Malibu and Impala year-to-date.

Toyota and Honda were a different, yet familiar, story. Both companies saw double-digit declines compared with a year ago. Toyota was down 12.7% while Honda fell a whopping 24.6%.

Despite the slump, the Toyota Camry remained the top-selling car in August, with more than 30,000 of the family sedans reaching customers. The Honda Accord returned to the top 10 best-selling list, finishing in ninth place. The once-venerable nameplate was absent from the list in July.

Cadillac Escalade Tops Most-Stolen List, Again

The Cadillac Escalade remains one of the most stolen cars in the U.S., according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an offshoot of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The group’s latest study shows that the Escalade’s popularity with thieves is high: Four versions of the Escalade appear at the top of HLDI’s list of 2008-10 vehicles with the most theft claims.

Escalade owners are stacking up theft losses that are more than 10 times larger ($114) than the average car ($11 worth of theft loss).

The data comes from insurers that represent about 80% of all privately owned vehicles. Understandably, the information doesn’t include information on uninsured cars. Unlike the most-stolen vehicle list we reported on earlier, which tends to be dominated by best-selling cars, HLDI says its list is a better indicator of how likely a given car will be targeted.

Ford and Toyota Team Up on Hybrid Trucks

If there was any doubt that new fuel regulations would make an immediate and widespread impact on the automotive industry, it evaporated this morning. Today, Ford and Toyota announced an agreement to jointly develop — as equal partners — a new hybrid drivetrain specifically for light trucks and SUVs. This new technology would go on sale by the end of the decade.

The types of rear-wheel-drive vehicles this will be applied to include the most popular in the country, Ford’s F-150, along with large body-on-frame SUVs like the Toyota Sequoia and Ford Expedition. Ford and Toyota currently have just a handful of these types of vehicles in their portfolios, but the F-150 accounts for such a huge portion of sales that it alone would warrant this type of development.